cudgel
A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weaponA short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
» The ogre brandished a crude cudgel.
Serveto · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesA short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates.
Knüppel
дуби́нкаdubínka
a club that is used as a weapon
(figuratively)Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.
Examples
3 sentencesThe ogre brandished a crude cudgel.
It will scarcely be any easier on the people if the cudgel with which they are beaten is called the people's cudgel.
ruНароду отнюдь не будет легче, если палка, которою его будут бить, будет называться палкою народной. — Ooneykcall · CC BY 2.0 FR
You don't care about Tom. You're only using him as a cudgel to beat John with.
Translations
7 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“a knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), equivalent to cog + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“a stick with a rounded end”).
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